Elliott Abrams

Elliott Abrams (24 January 1948-) was Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs from 17 July 1985 to 20 January 1989, succeeding Langhorne Motley and preceding Bernard Aronson. A neoconservative, he served under Ronald Reagan and was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, for which he was convicted in 1991, although he was pardoned by George H.W. Bush. In 2019, Donald Trump named him as the US special representative for Venezuela.

Biography
Elliott Abrams was born in New York City, New York in 1948 to a Democratic Party-supporting Jewish family. He became a lawyer during the 1970s and worked on Scoop Jackson's brief neoconservative 1976 Democratic presidential primary bid, and his dissatisfaction with Jimmy Carter's foreign policy led to his switching of party affiliation to Republican in 1980.

Abrams served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs in 1981, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from 1981 to 1985, and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs from 1985 to 1989, and he played a major role in Ronald Reagan's foreign policy in Central America. He supported aid to Guatemalan president Efrain Rios Montt during his campaign of genocide against the Maya, defended the human rights record of the El Salvador government and claimed that the El Mozote massacre was an exaggeration, and solicited $10 million from Brunei to assist the Contras in Nicaragua (although the money ended up in the wrong Swiss bank account due to a clerical error).

In October 1986, after a plane carrying US arms to the Contras in Nicaragua was shot down, the State Department's secret aid to the Contras was discovered, leading to the Iran-Contra scandal. In 1991, Abrams was sentenced to a $50 fine, probation for two years, and 100 hours of community service, but he was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush in December 1992. President Goerge W. Bush appointed Abrams Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Operations at the National Security Council on 25 June 2001, and he supported the 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt against Hugo Chavez and became an advisor to Condoleezza Rice.

During the 2016 presidential election, Abrams strongly denounced Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, comparing the election to the 1972 election, during which the Watergate scandal occurred. However, on 25 January 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appointed Abrams as the USA's Special Representative for Venezuela, which Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) questioned due to his previous conviction and his role in supporting right-wing dictatorships in the 19802.